Tag: history

Brian Williams suspended; Jon Stewart stepping down: Which one is the bigger item?

Did news just die today?
Brian Williams was suspended after a number of days of intrigue.. He lied about a helicopter in Iraq years ago. He also is being doubted over his tales of Katrina of watching bodies float through the street … And now, six months from now when Americans will undoubtedly be baking under a late summer sun, we will see if NBC NEWS really brings back the anchor..

He may be forgiven.
He may be forgotten..
It also may give more time to the sleuths online who will notate any other potential lie that Williams may have uttered over the past lifetime we’ve all shared together.

However, a bigger event may have occurred today. Jon Stewart announced on the DAILY SHOW that he is going to step down at the end of this year–he hosted the program since 1999 and has become one of the most influential comedians in history. Not just because the DAILY SHOW has been filled with memorable humor, but also because he has become the Cronkite of our age..

He is trusted more than Williams and company.. countless Americans get their news from the DAILY SHOW each night or in snippets online the day after. His jokes are hard hitting.. they are important.. they are also game changing, often able to pinpoint hypocrisy not only within the ruling class but also within media as well. Jon Stewart brought humor back after 9/11 in a massive way. He was the only person on television at the time who was noticing the inaccuracies in the Bush Administration during the runup to the Iraq war. After the war started, he was the sole survivor of truth on TV, giving people a humorous blend of soundbites and lies. All with a smile–but beneath the smile was the frown of truth and the exposure of emperors without clothing.

Brian Williams played a game. He lived in an act–one where he seemingly wanted to place himself in important events only to massage his own ego and inflate his own importance. He was caught. And caught up in a web of lies. With his Twitter account vanquished of all recent memory, the memory hole will have to be accessed. Undoubtedly people will still find more inconsistencies. It’s a surety..

It’s somewhat ironic, perhaps, that both Williams and Stewart made news today; Williams faked his way through teleprompter reading while Stewart wrote the material that would tuck Americans in each night. They could rest assured that while the world was in flames and turmoil, at least there’s a way to laugh about it all.. There was much more truth on THE DAILY SHOW than anything else on the evening newscast..

Only days ago, Stewart even offered a hard hitting joke about Williams’ potential demise:

Finally — someone is being held to account for misleading America about the Iraq War.

And how true that is.. The amount of those playing war drums are much more important than anything Williams did. But they aren’t questioned much.. instead they show up years later as ‘experts’ on major networks.. With talking heads reading friendly questions in a corporate news environment.

Thank God we had the DAILY SHOW.
And I pray we still will..

I got to like Brian Williams when I was just 16 years old watching him anchor live coverage of Flight TWA 800. During his coverage it was entertained that a missile hit the plane…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxzWp1kbyWs]

The record of history, of course, didn’t speak of a missile. Though conspiracy theories still abound about Flight 800, the memory hole was carefully filled in with the dirt of ‘official’ truth..

Perhaps there is some weird confidential consideration to make.. a missile hitting an airline in 1996, and they say it didn’t happen.. Williams in a helicopter in the early 2000s saying a rocket propelled grenade hit, but it didn’t..

Tonight the news died.
But not because of Williams and his verbal missteps.
Instead because the real newsman of our time left one of the last remaining vestiges of truth in our time..

February 10, 2015
CHERNOBYL FROM A DRONE

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNV5Sq28Mp4?feature=oembed]

This is video of a drone flyover of the city of Chernobyl, Russia..I suppose we all know of the deadly and tragic history from the end of the 20th century..

Now, so many decades later—but no danger is gone—a drone captured chilling footage of the city of Pripyat, Ukraine. The city is stuck in time—people who were mandated to leave after the nuclear disaster in 1986 were told they’d be gone for three days. They never came back, but because the government lied to them, many of their personal possessions were simply left in place. The images from the drone were courtesy of Danny Cook, who went to Chernobyl to film the video for a CBS 60 MINUTES piece..

The video portrays an overgrown city.. vegetation is lush.. the radiated earth has taken over the streets capes..

The nightmare is nuclear catastrophe will not be over any generation soon.. But the remnants of what was are still cold, vacant, and seemingly chilling..

November 30, 2014
TIME MAGAZINE Robin Williams Cover

This week’s magazine honors Robin Williams with an RIP cover..

I think there are certain moments, like this, when print is still king. People will buy this issue because of the keepsake nature of its existence.. A digital copy isn’t as good as holding history in your hands..

I still subscribe to TIME and also THE WEEK magazine. And I am grateful I do when big things happen.. this is one issue I’ll keep.

August 13, 2014
History on a wire

This happened 40 years ago today.

Philippe Petit left a crowd of thousands breathless as he traversed a wire strung between the Twin Towers. Eschewing a safety harness or a net, the 24-year-old walked and danced across the 130-foot gap between the towers, balanced on a one-inch thick steel cable strung at a height of 110-stories.

In later accounts, Petit traced his inspiration for the performance back to the first time he saw a photo of the Twin Towers. He was at a dentist’s office with a toothache when he came across the image in a magazine. The 18-year-old ripped the photo out and left the office. He spent the next six years planning for the death-defying act.

And now those towers are gone.. remaining are memories of them, and recollections of seeing this amazing feat on that day in August, 1974..

August 7, 2014
WWE doing what it does best: Commenting on pop culture and current events

Russian-themed WWE characters use MH17 disaster as part of act »

The characters Lana and Rusev launched into an anti-American rant in which they made reference to the flight MH17 being shot down and hailed Russian president Vladimir Putin for ‘making fools’ out of the U.S..

People are quite angry about this, so the mainstream media says, on Twitter and all of the other antisocial networks that exist out there on the information beltway.

While it may be the old ‘too soon’ cliche that is best used in this situation, I am not at all surprised at what the WWE is doing.

Back when when the WWE was the WWF, they capitalized on Iranian hatred by making Hulk Hogan win the 1984 title belt against the Iron Sheik..

In 1990, Sgt Slaughter turned his back on the United States and joined with Iraq ..

Hulkster had to ave the say the day and rid the WWF of anti-American sentiment.

So now wrestling has LUNA..

But there’s no Hulk Hogan to save the day this time. I think John Cena is right for the job..

Listen.. We all know, at this point in life, that wrestling is fake. It’s an act.. but so often it’s on the cutting edge of pop culture—it’s how it stayed in fashion for so many decades. Vince McMahan is obviously no stranger to controversy and will get through this LUNA lunacy quite fine.

As to whether it’s offensive? Sure.. but that’s the point. It’s an attempt to market the character as someone we will all hate in unison. It’s quite a keen way of doing it.. controversial, too. But … if an organization was free of controversy, people may very well stop paying attention to it.. Don’t think THAT doesn’t run through Vince McMahan’s mind.

July 21, 2014